Star Trek Enterprise Season 1 Episode 8: Breaking the Ice

Welcome back to Enterprise, this episode is written by Maria Jacquemetton and Andre Jacquemetton. I don't how many of you listen to the Nerdest Podcast.

The Nerdist - Chris Hardwick

But they were talking about a game called Star Trek Timelines and I can't put it down. It has put me in a real Star Trek funk. You guys should all play it if you are fans of Star Trek.

Ok, now that I'm done telling you about stuff that have little to nothing to do with this blog but hey whatever. Back to this episode. We start off with Trip and Phlox looking at artwork drawn by kids on Earth. T'pol is not amused. The Enterprise drops out of warp as they come across an undiscovered asteroid.

Trip and T'Pol have dinner together and he clearly gets on her nerves. The relationship they will one day have is a far far way off. It turns out that the Asteroid has minerals that they could use so they decide to send a shuttle out. But before they get a chance Vulcans show up and tell the crew that they are investigating why the humans are interested in the comet. I love how much tension there is between humans and vulcans in this show. Something that none of the other shows in this universe ever had. Archer feels about Vulcans the way that Kirk feels about Klingons but I couldn't imagine him having one for a 1st officer.

Reed and Mayweather are the ones who take the shuttle down to the surface. Trip reports to Archer that T'Pol is speaking to the Vulcans in private. They have Hoshi hack in and find out what they are talking about while Archer sends a message back to Earth. Once again we see just how different this show is than the ones that came before but take place after.

During the questions Trip gets stuck with a question about human waste. He is not happy about it, this is one of the funner scenes of the show. I love the humor that always seems to happen at Trip's expense.

Reed and Mayweather have decide to have some fun and build a snowman but get yelled out by Archer who doesn't want to look bad in front of the Vulcans. Hoshi unlocks the message and turns it over to Trip without reading it. Turns out the letter was a personal letter. He tells Archer and the two of them can't figured out why it was encoded. Trip decides that he has to tell T'Pol because it is the right thing to do. For a species that doesn't feel emotion she sure does get pissed at Trip for reading it. She makes him promise not to tell anyone what it was about.

Archer is getting more and more annoyed about the Vulcans watching them so he asks T'Pol to invite them to dinner. He wants to show them that he has nothing to hide and then to send them away. It seems that T'Pol can't sleep due to a tenison headache. She doesn't want to tell Phlox what is wrong but he encourages her to talk to someone if she can.

Reed and Mayweather finish their snowman and then blow it up so that they can start their drill. The dinner is not going well. The Vulcan doesn't seem to like Archer and keeps trying to make him feel like shit. Archer is clearly getting annoyed. Archer starts talking shit to the Vulcan but Trip tries to cut in and ease the tension a bit. Archer more or less kicks the Vulcan off the ship.

It seems that the explosion that they used to start the drill changed the rotation of the asteroid. Reed and Mayweather only have two hours to finish their work and get off before it's too late. Trip is called into T'Pol room and she asks him what he thinks about the fact that her marriage is about to be called off. Trip doesn't seem to get prearranged marriage. She asks his advice and gets mad when he keeps insulting her people. He tells her that she should do what feels right to herself. He then points out that it seems like she made up her mind and ends the conversation. He tells her that it seems like she doesn't want to get married and leave the crew for a year and she is just looking for an excuse to stay. She doesn't like that answer much.

While heading back to the shuttle Mayweather trips and falls, messing up his knee. Reed gets the core sample and helps Mayweather the long way to the shuttle, leaving the equipment behind. The sun starts to come up as they make their way. The Asteroid starts to melt. They don't have much time left. The whole thing is breaking apart. They make it inside as the ground falls out from under them. They crash inside the asteroid before they can take off and now they are trapped.

Archer takes the helm of the Enterprise so that he can move the ship close enough for Trip to send the grappling hook. The Vulcans call and ask if Archer needs help but Archer sends them away, showing some of that Kirk pride. Only one of the hooks gets a hold of the ship. It isn't enough to pull them out. they are still stuck. They start to lose a hold of the shuttlepod and it falls back to the base of the Asteroid. They rotate out of the sunlight and it starts to freeze again. T'Pol talks Archer into letting the Vulcans using the tractor-beam to pull them out. Archer accepts their help, but only after T'Pol uses Trip's words against him.

T'Pol decides to stay on the ship. Trip acts all smug about it. Seems the romance isn't as far off as I thought. The seeds are already showing.